WTF 12/23… Two days ’til Christmas…

It’s only a few more days until Christmas so I’m gonna keep today’s column short… sorta light…for me anyway… then just end with some thoughts about the season.

Now don’t go and get your panties in a knot and think this is gonna get all teary and mushy… (though I have been known to get a little misty watching Old Yeller or the Yearling or at scenes like when Tiny Tim and Ebeneezer buddy up there at the end of Christmas Carol or when George Bailey discovers what his life really means)… it’s just some thoughts on what the season is to me and then I’ll be off living what I say… making merry with family and friends… quietly and happily in my own kinda old hippie sort of way… a little music… good food… conversation… a concert at some small club… a New Haven pizza with an old friend… exchanging some gifts… watching my newly adopted pupdog tear open his presents (yeah, some supposedly indestructible stuffed squeaky toys… we’ll see) on Christmas morn… then some time just resting and relaxing…

Can’t make this shit up…

Dude by the name of Clarence Moses-EL been in prison for the past 28 years…since 1987… serving time on his sentence of 48 years for rape and assault. To be sure so-called common assault by itself is a nasty ass crime but rape is one of the most…if not the most…heinous types of an assault that can be perpetrated against another human being. And anyone convicted of that most heinous crime deserves whatever punishment they get… plus some. That is as long as they got the right man for committing the crime.

In December 2103… 25 years after Moses was placed into jail for being convicted of rape… another man… L. C. Jackson… convicted of two rapes and serving time for the crimes, wrote a letter to Moses and in part it said… “I really don’t know what to say to you, but let’s start by bringing what was done in the dark into the light. I have a lot on my heart.”

Clarence Moses-EL

He goes on to tell Moses that he knows that Moses is innocent because he is the one who did the crime that Moses is in jail for.

Now… funny thing… that’s funny as in funny very sickly strange and not funny ha-ha… the woman who was assaulted and raped initially said that Jackson was the man who done the dirty deed against her person… yet for some reason the cops got pointed toward Moses and then a key piece of evidence that was discovered and helped to convict Moses was that the rape victim said she saw Moses’ face in a dream of herself being violated.

Yep… in fact… the victim, when first questioned by cops initially named three men as possible attackers but never mentioned Mr. Moses-EL… not until after a day or so had gone by and after her dream.

In the 1990’s as Moses-EL was serving his time, he persuaded fellow inmates to help get together $1,000 to do a DNA test on the evidence that was acquired during the investigation of the crime scene… a practice that, at the time, was not the usual circumstance. He also was able to get a big time criminal lawyer by the name of Barry Scheck interested in his case and who agreed to present his arguments in court.

And finally in 1995… a judge said ok… yet… the cops less than a month removed from the court decision said they tossed the evidence… said they never got the court order.

No DNA test. No hearing… Moses-EL stayed in prison.

In 2005 when questioned by appeal attorneys, the lead investigating detective, expressed doubts about Moses-EL’s guilt in a sworn statement.

Still, Moses languished in jail…with hope at a standstill… when in 2013 came Jackson’s confessional letter.

Jackson testified at a hearing in August that he knew the victim; that she was a friend of his girlfriend at the time. He said he beat her after she angered him while they were having consensual sex. Jackson’s testimony and blood tests create a strong suggestion that the rapist had a different blood type than Moses-EL… something that would have likely led to Moses-EL being dullard not guilty by a jury… DNA evidence was what led to Jackson’s convictions in the 1992 rapes of a mother and daughter that happened about a mile and a half away from the first woman’s home.

But the evidence that held any DNA from Moses-EL’s case had been destroyed…

And… at the most recent presentation of evidence, the presiding judge said… as she agreed to overturn Moses-EL’s conviction… that he would likely be acquitted at a new trial.

But for some reason the Denver prosecutor’s office says that the other man’s confession was “implausible” and inconsistent with the beating. They also said that Moses-EL “has had the full benefit of every aspect of the criminal justice system, including multiple appeals” and they would have to think it over whether they would pursue another trial of Moses-EL.

So… in 2013 a confession is made that says Moses-EL didn’t do the crime… yet it has taken another two years before a judge finally orders a new trial in his case…

The woman who got raped even named Jackson way back when… but… Moses-EL was the one who got his ass convicted… by the woman’s dreams…

Then evidence… evidence that was originally collected in the late 1980’s… is destroyed by the Denver cops despite a judge’s orders to preserve the evidence for testing.

Now the DA’s office says they got to think about whether this man should be set free or retried? Seems to me the decision is pretty damn clear and they ought to just do the right thing and let Moses-EL get the hell home so he can spend his first Christmas in a damn long time… too damn long… with what is left of his family…

So far while he has been imprisoned… two sisters, two brothers, an uncle, a nephew and his mom have all died.

Just let him go free so he can have Christmas dinner with his wife, two children, his pop and two brothers…

Let his children who have only known him while he was dressed in prison garb and while he was within the walls of a prison be with him at the dinner table and then maybe sitting near a tree with whatever presents can be had… but mostly with the love of his family…smiling and laughing and maybe even shedding a tear or two…

Let Moses-EL be free and be with his loved ones freely…

God? Next time you see him ya had better run…

I am kind a sorta on the fence about this one… Maybe I’m wrong but I just don’t really grok this whole scenario here…

You be the judge…

At Riverheads High School… in Virginia… Geography teacher Cheri Laporte asked her students to copy some Arabic text and then asked the female students to wear head scarves, or hijabs. It was supposed to be an assignment that taught the children about multiculturalism and Islam.

Problem… a lot of the parents in the community saw it a tad differently… like the teach was trying to influence their children… to the point of indoctrination … about their religious choice.

Now… before I go further… I got no problem with the copying the Arabic text part… though, I think it’s a little weird. Why? Because I’m not really sure how copying something in Arabic… or any other language not your native tongue… makes anyone see things from a different cultural perspective… and… the choice of what was being copied gave me pause and I thought was also a bit strange… more on that in a bit…

The part about wearing the Hijabs for the girls? What the fuck is that all about? Is it just me or does that seem a little bit on the odd or hinky side?

Still… I don’t see this a anything more than a teacher trying to teach… I think the method’s a little off the beaten trail… but… hey, off the beaten trail is my middle name… and… if it’s successful or teaches then I say go for it no matter how weird I think it is.

As for the parents who got the heebie jeebies over what this teacher was doing in their children’s classroom…whether she was trying to indoctrinate them or nor… what ya’ll don’t think your children… we’re talking supposedly independent leaning teenagers here… don’t have the ability to think for themselves? Or, is it that these parents teach their children that thinking for themselves is tad on the verboten side of the life they supposed to be living?

Hell… it’s a damn class. It’s not like this teacher is going around telling these kids “Drink my Kool-Aid… go contact some ISIS peeps on the internet and go spread some death…”

One student did tell local station WVIR-TV that some of the kids did get upset over being told to copy the Arabic script or to wear the hijabs. And, ya know, if that’s the case then that should be a good thing…it opens up the classroom to a dialogue between the teacher and the students as well as with other students with opposing or different thoughts, and, can be used as a further educational experience… open dialogue is good not bad. Kids got objections then let them air them out and through discussion find out how to resolve the objections.

Now the objection… or should I say the question… I got that is about the words that were being copied… “There is no other God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.” And, though, it is being said that the students were unaware of the meaning of the text at the time they were asked to copy it… some other less possibly subjective text couldn’t have been used? Something that was just an Arabic phrase that was a tad more neutral in its meaning?

(Editor’s Note: But, if ya’ll check out the picture (see to the left) associated with the assignment, it does explain things to the students… just not the exact words of what was being copied.)

That would then eliminate some peeps thinking that indoctrination shit… maybe…

Why is it “maybe”? Because one parent told WVIR-TV … “When I saw the Arabic language, immediately I had a bad feeling come over me.”

The parent then posted an angry Facebook post and of course it immediately got picked up by other right-wing… aka conservative… groups and used and blown way out of proportion to what was really the intent of the teacher and the school… who the local school board, by the way, supported fully in what was being done. In fact, the board went so far to say this is something that Ms. Laporte been doing for some time now with nary a contrary word having been spoken. Until now that is…

But, then how can someone argue with that parent when she said that she had been “led by the Lord” to call together other folks to come to a local church and demand that the teacher get her ass canned and for security to be placed (armed at that I would guess) onto the school grounds “to make sure no one gets out of hand.”

Ahhhhhh… nothing like a good old witch hunt and burning to stir and warm the cockles of the puritanical heart… eh?

Karma chameleon…

Remember the asshole who brought up the patent… or rights… to a life saving AIDS med and then jacked the price up by more than 5,000% and when he was asked why he did that, he said… because he could…

Remember that dude?

Well… sometimes karma has a funny way of finally appearing and making things start to look a bit better than… at least a tad more justified… that they were before. It always instant… sorry, John (Google “Instant Karma” already)… but sometimes it do hit you right in the head… and in the gut… and the ass… and over a damn conniving lying cheating ass, heart and soul.

What the fuck am I rambling on and on and on about?

Just this… that dude who had the audacity to jack the price up on a med that some poor snook who had AIDS or cancer needed just had his ass hauled away in a nickel plated bracelets because he was busted… along with his damn lawyer… on charges of securities fraud.

Martin Shkreli (center) busted…

Martin Shkreli was on a lot of people lips earlier this year due to the fact that the company he fronted… Turing Pharmaceuticals… raised the price of Daraprim… a 62-year-old drug that fights against the life-threatening parasite toxoplasmosis and protects cancer and AIDS patients… to $750 per tablet from $13.50.

The pill costs about $1 to produce. Do the math… he took what was already an out of the world profit margin and turned it into an out of the universe profit margin.

The son of a bitch said… “I could have raised it higher and made more profits for our shareholders, which is my primary duty. No one wants to say it, no one’s proud of it, but this is a capitalist society, capitalist system and capitalist rules, and my investors expect me to maximize profits.”

Yeah… right… power to the almighty dollar, bro…

Fuck all them little people who need the meds but can’t afford the cost of the pills.

When the name Shkreli is said in certain circles the pissed offedness meters usually go beyond ringing the bell…

FBI Assistant Director Diego Rodriguez says Shkreli pulled a “securities fraud trifecta of lies, deceit and greed. While the charges today are significant, they are but one example of what’s left to come.”

Hmmm…

If, that’s just the tip of the iceberg with more to come… maybe that’s why he was all nervous and beathign hard and staring this way and that during his time before a judge who set his bail at $5 mil plus…

Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Robert Capers told reporters that the dickhead… my choice of words not Capers… 0perated his companies like a Ponzi scheme.

Attorney Capers also accused said Shkreli of illegally using $11 million in assets from Retrophin, the company he founded in 2011, to pay off defrauded investors from his failed hedge fund, MSMB Capital Management.

All of these activities were said to be done before he tried raising the price on medications that sick people needed to beyond the stratosphere…

Yeah… for his investors, my ass… more like he needed a fresh influx of casheesh to pay off some overdue false investments is more like it. Gotta cover his ass somehow and beat the wolf from the door…

Greedy ass mother fucker.

See how greedy his ass is when he winds up sharing some jail time with Bernie…

And… Babs said what????

Not that long ago the “retired” 86-year-old newswoman Barbara Walters said she was in the “Don’t Give a Fuck” phase of her career… as well as her life…

Amy, Babs & Brad

Guess she means what she says…

Why I say that? Recently on prime-time TV she said that Amy Schumer had a nice ass and that movie star Bradley Cooper… all of 40-years-of-age… was “very fuckable.”

Yes… she did…

All I gots to say is… You go, girl…

And… by the way… anyone got any ideas what Santa should put under Barbara’s tree this Christmas???

What took so long…

After thinking about it for most of the year… Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc has just reported that was changing its name.

The biotech company said it from now on it would be known as Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc and that its stock exchange ticker symbol would be changed to “IONS” from “ISIS.”

Now, anyone worth half a brain probably can guess that the company was named after the Egyptian goddess Isis… who was revered in Egypt as a protector and healer… but there are enough half witted lame brained assholes out there who couldn’t spell dog if you spotted them the “D” and the “G” and would think… well ya’ll know what they would think… “AWK.. Muslim terrorists… on the stock exchange even! AWK!”

Still… regardless… all in all… What the fuck took ya’ll so damn long? Wha’d ya’ll talk about for a year? ISIS is bad… Our name is Isis… is peeps gonna think we all is bad, too? Hmmmmm…

One that caught my attention…

Last minute to do list…

One of my favorite Christmas songs…

So, this is ChristmasAnd what have you done?Another year overAnd a new one just begun

And so this is ChristmasI hope you have funThe near and the dear oneThe old and the young

A very merry ChristmasAnd a happy New YearLets hope it’s a good oneWithout any fear

And so this is ChristmasFor weak and for strongFor rich and the poor onesThe road is so long

And so happy ChristmasFor black and for whiteFor yellow and red onesLet’s stop all the fight

A very merry ChristmasAnd a happy New YearLet’s hope it’s a good oneWithout any fear

And so this is ChristmasAnd what have we doneAnother year overAnd a new one just begun

And so happy ChristmasWe hope you have funThe near and the dear oneThe old and the young

A very merry ChristmasAnd a happy New YearLet’s hope it’s a good oneWithout any fear

War is overIf you want itWar is overNow

(Songwriters: Yoko Ono & John Lennon)

Merry Christmas to all of our men and women overseas in foreign lands far, far, far away from their cherished ones…

My Merry Christmas… to one and all…

I want ya’ll to know… it doesn’t matter if you’re of any religious belief… Christian… Jewish… Muslim… Hindu… anything at all… or not… when I wish you a Merry Christmas I do it from my heart and my sense that it’s a time where love and peace is supposed to be in the air…

For me there is no religious meaning behind my Merry Christmas at all.

There may, or may not, be for you, but, Christmas for me is a spirit and a feeling… and, yep, it is about giving and getting gifts. They don’t got to be exchanged with everyone and they don’t gotta be real damn big, flashy or expensive or anything like that… no Beemers or Mercs… no Rolexes or diamonds or gold … don’t want no damn frankincense or myrrh either for that matter… just something from the heart that says I care and I thought of you.

But… when I say Merry Christmas it just means that… Merry Fucking Christmas… have a good time… and, if ya’ll can, I hope ya’ll have a tree with whatever decorations ya can get for it or that floats your personal boat. If, you want there to be baby Jesus that’s all fine for you, but, for me… it isn’t a part of it at all. Hell, I don’t even think of myself as a Christain, so why would he be a part of my celebration?

For me… it’s all about living and loving and caring and hoping for peace and joy throughout the world and for forgetting our troubles for just a few weeks… or even days… and trying to be as merry and at peace as we can… no hell below or heaven above… nothing to kill or die for… no religion… imagine that… just us having a bowl together and wishing for peace, love, and, happiness.

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